Reviews for Katya

The average rating for Katya based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-26 00:00:00 Rick Cohen I'm sure there is a fine story here, hidden within the folds of Mennonite minutiae but I was not engaged on any level. (Read: I was bored senseless.) I fidgeteted, squirmed and sighed my way through 79 pages. I then skimmed through a hundred more. Still nothing. I leave it to others to find their reading nirvana in these pages. Running for the exit.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-30 00:00:00 Christopher Kauffman It would be accurate but misleading to say that the Russlander tells the tale of a Mennonite community living in Russia that had to flee to Canada during the immediate aftermath of the Bolchevik revolution. The importance of Sandra Birdsell's book is that using the case of her own community she is able to illustrate what happened to many ethnic minorities living in Russia when the Tsarist system was overthrown. Even importantly it describes what happens wherever there are religious and linguist minorities governed by special rules when the regime they live under is overthrown by a group with leveller instincts. Imperial Russia was comprised of hundreds of different linguistic communities belonging to a multitude of religions and sects. Some of the minorities were in Russia by virtue of conquest notably in central Europe and the trans-caucus. The Mennonites were in Russia by invitation as the Tsar was afflicted by the great problem of having too much territory and not nearly enough citizens to tax. Thus the Mennonites were offered the right to live in Russia on the mere condition that they farm industriously. They were allowed to use their own language and practice their own Anabaptist form of Christianity. They were not required to do military service and were exempt from serfdom. Because they were prosperous and lived under different rules than the Russian peasants around them they attracted jealously. The Russlander then describes how a Mennonite community failed to understand the peril that their special status placed them in. When the Tsar fell, they found out soon enough. Properties were burned and families were massacred. We see all these events through the eyes of a young girl who is lucky enough to survive and move to Manitoba with other Russlanders (i.e. Mennonites Resident in Russian territory). This is a truly great book whose importance greatly surpasses that of its nominal subject of how the Russlanders came to live in Manitoba. Read this book. In many ways it is also about the Yazidis of Kurdistan who are currently being threatened by ISIS.